Welcome to Miami Connor Williams

Connor Williams will join us. We'll break down his game as well as get him in here to talk some football as well as his decision to join the Miami Dolphins this season from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drivetime Podcasts. So a new offensive lineman here in tow as the Dolphins get a big body up front with plenty of experience

and per auction in the National Football League. And we just begin this year with Connor Williams production so far with four years of the Dallas Cowboys, and you talk about a team that has fielded some of the best offensive lines in the National Football League going back for over a half decade. Now, Williams was kind of a final piece to that team back when he was drafted, when they had Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, Lyle Collins, uh

Tyrant Smith. They needed one more guy, and they plug in Connor Williams and he winds up being a hit for them as well. He was a tackle at Texas, kicked inside to play primarily left guard. He had eighty one snaps not at left guard for the Cowboys, and it really seems like he's hitting his stride now heading into just his age twenty five season. A theme here of these Dolphins acquisitions, a lot of second contract guys

twenty six that range in terms of their age. And you know, he surrendered just one sack last year, which gave him a ninety eight point five pass block efficiency that was the third best on Pro Football Focus among all qualifying guards in the National Football League, not left guards or right guards, all of them. In total, he allowed thirteen QB pressures. That was the second fewest among guards that had at least two hundred pass blocking snaps,

and he had well more than that. His third team pressures allowed were fewer than fifty seven of the guards in the National Football League one. He started all thirty four games the last two years. That includes the one playoff game against the Niners this past January, logging two thousand, one hundred and seventy five offensive snaps in the process. He's played three thousand, seven hundred twenty two snaps over

a four year career. That's an average of nine thirty point five per season, and since being selected in the second round of NFL Draft, he's been as durable and reliable and dependable therefore the Cowboys as anybody. With just twelve sacks, allowed, eleven QB hits and total pressures over the course of four seasons, so that gives you an average of three sacks, less than three quarterback hits per season,

and under twenty five total QB pressures per season. That's going to give you a career pass blocking efficiency of ninety seven point four. Very very solid numbers there in pass pro and among guards with at least two hundred run blocking snaps. On Pro Football Focus, Williams graded out as the tenth best run blocking guard from PFF and best in when running left to the A and B gaps.

Off of Williams right in the A gap off of his left in the B gap, the Cowboys average four point four yards in both those gaps and scored four touchdowns, and they had some good numbers running off left guard the previous couple of seasons to some five point two and five point eight numbers in going in behind Connor Williams at that left guard position, so plenty of production running behind him and passed and pass pro as well.

His athletic ability is a big part of that. I think we talked again about Daniel Jeremiah and the run to the draft, about guys that can move in smart offensive lineman, his ability to it in space and execute reach blocks and pull techniques and just anything that requires quick movement skills. Those were all on displayer for Williams and his four year career with the Cowboys and before that in the NFL scouting combine where he showed the

elite movement skills. Based upon the timing numbers, they're a five oh five forty yard dash as a left guard, a thirty four inch vertical leap, a hundred and twelve inches in the broad jump. He tested the ninety percentile among all guards dating back to Night seven. In total, Williams earned a nine point one five relative athletics scorecard out of a possible ten points. That cumulatively is in the eighty five percentile, so an upper echelon athlete for

the Miami Dolphins offensive line. And again he can play tackle or guard. Talk about smarts and intelligence. Again, guys that can move we mentioned that as well. But the movement skills we check that box with the R A. S scorecard, right. The intelligence, well, here here you go. Williams was an early enrollee at the University of Texas.

He graduated high school early and that allowed him to get on the football field for the long Horns at left tackle and right away earned Freshman All American honors. He did that while maintaining a three point five grade point average and earning admission into you u t s highly highly prestigious McCombs School of Business. I'm reading that that's very rare. We'll talk to him about that here in just one second. It's hard to get into that school,

I should say, so. Versatile in life and on the football field, because what's one thing you always look for in a fifty three man roster that can dress forty six active players on game day? Versatility and the more you can do will go a long, long way. For a football player in their career and for a football

team in the way they perceived those guys. And that's what Connor Williams offers left tackle at the University of Texas before pivoting inside to the left guard position during his rookie season with Dallas, and he was a solution there for essentially four years for the Dallas Cowboys. He did play a hundred and eighty snaps at left tackle when Hyrn Smith went down and also flipped over to the right side to give you some work at the guard position. And he also almost never comes off the field.

Takes a lot to get him off the field. Remember last week he talked about leam Meikenberg in that swollen eye and not leaving the field. Connor Williams got injured in a game against the Eagles in twenty left the field to go to the locker room on the final play of the drive, came back, didn't miss a snap the rest of the game, played seventy snaps played the rest of the season as well. So he is very reliable, durable, and versatile. And then how about some of some fun

stuff off the field. Here read the story about him at his days at Texas and kind of in his childhood and getting up to high school and in college level, uh, you know, standout from day one. But he knew the NFL aspirations meant adding some proverbial sand to his pants. He had to get a little bit bigger. So he went from two eight five pounds to three hundred pounds between his freshman sophomore seasons at Texas. And that's not a rarity. It happens all the time in college football.

But that's thanks in large part to his skills in the kitchen, he says. I guess he wanted to be a chef when he was younger. The story I read says his parents told him he was a good cook and that he wanted to be a chef, even to the point that where he and his brother Dalton, who also shared an affinity for the art of cooking, competed in a Top Chef style cook off in the early years. Both were given five ingredients to come up with their

best dish. I'm looking forward to asking Connor about that, and speaking of let's go ahead and get Connor on here. We'll ask him about that and plenty more here next on the Drivetime podcast, with Travis Wingfield brought to you by Auto Nation. Dolphins new offensive lineman Connor Williams coming up next. What's up? Dolphin's Travis Wingfield Here the host of the Drivetime podcast on Miami Dolphins podcast Network, and I'm joined today by new Dolphins offensive lineman Connor Williams. Connor,

how you doing man? How's it phil? Be here in Miami? Oh? It's exciting. I'm so excited. You can feel the energy around the building and everything. Just so pumped to be here. You mentioned the building. What do you think of the new building here? This is our our second season here in Miami Gardens. What do you think of it all? Oh, this thing's sick. I mean it's it's definitely a top of the line and excited to get in here, start working out and get him with it. That's high praise

coming from Frisco. I mean you saw some good building over there too. Definitely palm trees and everything. You can't beat it. It looks pretty nice, especially at night time, the sun, the sunset, it looks perfect. But so you know, I got to ask you this because my all time favorite dolphin is a Texas longhorn and he guess what that might be. It's Ricky Williams. So I'm curious who is who is your all time favorite Longhorn? Uh? You

know growing up and watched him. I remember getting out of bed and watching events events run run for the Roses. So I'd have to say Vans. When you say getting out of bed, you mean I was. It was. I was in middle school. It was a school night and I got a bed and watched him running. So, um yeah, I just remember that memory very Finally, one of those were opportunities where could stay up late and watch a football game, right because it was a special one of

the big national championship exactly, all that stuff. So before you get to Texas, I understood that you wanted to. You had aspirations of being a chef potentially. Uh yeah. Mom always Mom always said I could be a chef, so, you know, just cooking at home and everything. She was like, do what you're passionate about, do what your past and about, go to cooking school and wentnot. And I was like, uh so, yeah, football trumps that. I think you made

the right choice. But when you do get in the kitchen, what's your favorite your go to dish to make hum. I'll beab my fiance, I'll be able to tell you. But she likes she likes the pasta, so I usually go pasta out. I can't go run with the cardboard loading. No, not at all, especially for a big game. So you're here in Miami. Now what attracted you to the Miami Dolphins in this whole process and free agency? Oh? Um? I mean just with the new coaching staff and and

the scheme and the fit. It's just it perfectly aligns. And just excited to be here. Just the sun, the team, everything, everything, it's just a perfect fit. You got the awkwahad on already, Pops Man, the color pops and you mentioned the scheme. You know, what is it about Mike McDaniel and this Dolphin system? Do you think that really benefits your skill set on the offensive line? Yeah, I've always been uh. I mean I played tight end in high school, so

I've always been the athletic type of offensive alignment. So being able to get out moving space, run the rock and uh and that's all they say. So it's singing to me. So very excited catch a bunch of touchdowns as a tight end um one or two, maybe not I know you're an athletic guy, so that that definitely tracks as well here. But you know you mentioned Mike McDaniel, this Dolphins system and there's plenty of offensive line coaching experience here with Frank Smith. John Embrey has running game

coordinator experience as well. How do you think all that experience on the offensive line can benefit you and this Dolphins team going forward? So just more heads at it, you know, being able to coach, being able to teach you technique and everything, and being able to pick up other people's brains. It's awesome. It's uh, it's gonna be

a good family fit. And when you got drafted by the Cowboys, you were kind of the fifth piece of the final piece on a really good offensive line and you guys had production for for your entire career there in Dallas. Is there one thing you kind of took away from all the greatness you were surrounded by on

that Cowboys offensive line? You know? I mean I was I was privileged to be able to play with thanks to such great guys and Hall of famers and just being able to watch them and watch how they go about their business and day in and day out, and uh, I got drafted there when I was twenties. So being able to learn from them at such a young age and develop into my own, um, it's it's experience. I

want to be able to take that. So last year I saw, just kind of going back over some of your tape, you had some untraditional staffs where you're kind of moving around the backfield and going to not going to motion, but in the backfield. And you know, Mike McDaniel used Trent Williams last year on some motion stuff with the forty nine. Have you seen that? Have you thought about that at all? No, I haven't even thought about it. But I mean, wherever I'm needed, I'm going.

It's kind of a dreamboll to get a head start, that wouldn't be Oh yeah, most definitely. So there was a there was a stretch of games last year where you you came back onto the field and really perform late in the season. Uh. And it is you know, after overcoming some adversity within that season last year, how did that kind of happen for you? How did you learn from that process and get back onto the field and really produced with the Cowboys. I mean that's I mean,

that's football, that's life. I mean, adversity comes in and goes, and it's about handling adversity. And and um, I knew my day would come again, and it came quicker than I thought. And uh, I just got back on the field and and playing football at theend of the day. You know, you're playing with Harry, You playing with passion and playing the game that you always played as a kid.

So it's not much more to it. Yeah, we love to see that down here, especially Lee and I want to go back to the Texas talk right here because you're gonna reunite with one of your former long home teammates and Brandon Jones. Have you guys stayed in touch. Good to see a familiar face here. I'm excited to see him. You know, I haven't talking i haven't talked to him in a while, and I'm excited to see him.

I'm excited to be able to link up with them. Yeah, he's a pretty energetic guy here that we have and a lot of those guys down here in the building, so you'll fit right in with them. Um. So as we get going here, you know what are you most excited about this opportunity? It could be football, the culture of South Florida, some food, maybe you talk about being a chef dealer's choice. What are you most excited about

here with the Miami Dolphins. Uh, you know what. I'm born and raised and text my whole life went to Uta and everything. Being able to get out of that bubble and a new fresh start with some new energy and new team, new faces and everything. Just excited for the next step. Is there anything that you have to check off your bucket list down here, like whether it's going out to the Everglades. We're gonna go see a Miami Heat game. What's one thing you're looking forward to

doing away from the football fan? I guess we're gonna have to drive down the Keys. Yeah, yeah, I can't go wrong with all good man. Connor Williams, new Dolphins offensive lineman, thanks for joining us today. Thank you pleasure, And there he goes. New Dolphins offensive lineman Connor Williams here on the Drivetime Podcast. These are shorter episodes than usual, but we have a bunch of them for you guys, so hopefully you enjoy all these interviews with these new

free agents here for your Miami Dolphins. All really fun guys to talk to. Upbeat, energetic, and very informative too. As to this coaching staff, this roster, this team, why they decided to join the Miami Dolphins. Plenty of good stuff. Let's go ahead and put a bowl on this episode. But first our last break here on the Drivetime Podcast Travis Wingfield brought to you by Auto Nation. Alright, Drivetime

Podcast Travis Wingfield presented by Auto Nation Connor Williams. Episode hope you guys enjoyed that the new Dolphins offensive lineman a lot of good experience at the left guard positions, some left tackle experience as well, even on the right side of the offensive line, so he has that versatility and the production to go a long way there as well, as you heard in that opening segment. As for this edition of the Drivetime Pod, that is gonna be my

time again Miami Dolphins dot Com. All the write ups on all these guys. We're gonna have these interviews coming out for you on the podcast as well. Plenty of content with the lounge interviews taking a look at those guys kind of more of their personality, behind the scenes type of stuff. Again, all the content you guys could want on Miami Dolphins dot Com. YouTube, social channels and everything in between. In the meantime, that's gonna be my time.

You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You can follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins across all social channels. Check out the fish Tank with Seth and o J again, the YouTube channel with all of our media availabilities Dolphins Today, and of course, the video versions of these interviews. You can find those there. Last, but not least, Miami Dolphins

dot com. Until next time finds up Caroline, Let's go to the beach.